Malcolm Turnbull says he and his ministers are engaging with all the Senate crossbenchers to seek support for a responsible policy approach.
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The government will test Labor’s bona fides early in the new parliament with an ‘omnibus bill’ containing more than $6 billion in savings it says the ALP flagged at the election it would support.
London’s trading strength has evolved from dockyard cranes to high finance.
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As the budget deficit fades from political view, anxiety shifts to the much wider current account deficit. It may signal UK dynamism, but neither financing nor closing it look easy after Brexit.
A $2 billion welfare crackdown is the main contributor to new savings announced by the government to improve the budget by $1.1 billion across the forward estimates.
Chris Bowen and Tony Burke put out Labor’s costings just after Malcolm Turnbull’s official launch of the Coalition’s campaign.
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Labor has unveiled its costings, showing it would have a deficit of around $16 billion higher across the forward estimates than that shown in the Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook.
Labor announced a suite of savings measures at a press conference in Sydney.
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Labor’s weakest flank in this election is economic credibility and it knows it. A combination of the past, including memories of Wayne Swan’s ever-elusive surplus, and the present, with the perception…
Chris Bowen stressed that Labor’s fiscal program, when fully released, would ‘see us return to budget balance in exactly the same time frame as the government’.
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The opposition will attempt to strengthen its economic credentials by announcing on Friday a package of savings to help pay for its policies and improve the budget bottom line.
Sleep is at a premium in Canberra this week. Finance Minister Mathias Cormann is one of those doing the post-budget heavy lifting.
Economic reality has intruded on rosy budget predictions for years now and the Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook may soon challenge Treasurer Scott Morrison’s forecasts.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
Budget repair was put off till later, and the net impact of decisions in the budget was small, but it will be easier to defend in the coming election campaign than some other recent efforts.
Deloitte strongly argues the budget has a revenue problem, not just a spending problem – a proposition consistently rejected by Treasurer Scott Morrison.
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The federal budget deficit from now through to 2018-19 is likely to be $129 billion, $21 billion worse than in the December official budget update, according to Deloitte Access Economics.
More people are going to A&E.
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Hospitals in England anticipate a £2.3 billion deficit by the end of the financial year. That won’t leave much in the kitty for the proposed NHS upgrade.
Government spending, in part, reflects the policy commitments and borrowings of previous governments.
AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts
Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen told journalists that since the last federal election, the government has had spending as a percentage of GDP at GFC levels. Is that right?
Was federal treasurer Scott Morrison right about falling government expenditure?
AAP Image/Mick Tsikas
After a decade of narrowing fiscal deficits, South Africa has borrowed heavily since 2009 to support the economy. The debt pile exposes the country to the risk of a sell-off by foreign bond holders
In the latest in our Budget Explainer series, Mark Crosby explains debt and deficit and where Australia stands.
Joe Hockey, pictured arriving for the Liberal leadership spill in February, would not be delivering his second budget had Tony Abbott lost that vote.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
In just a year, the Abbott government has gone from a radical nation-changing budget to promising a ‘dull’ one. Are we to believe the ideological zeal is gone, or has the survival instinct kicked in?
Tony Abbott is preparing the electorate for his government’s first budget.
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The prospect of a “debt” tax or some sort of “deficit levy” to assist with the budget bottom line should prompt a clearer debate about the virtues of raising taxes versus cutting expenditure as a means…
Many pensioners are living in homes that are too expensive for them, says the Grattan Institute’s John Daley, arguing adding the family home to the assets test for the age pension would spur on downsizing.
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Charis Palmer, The Conversation and Kylar Loussikian, The Conversation
The Australian Government should tighten the welfare system for older Australians, adding the family home to the assets test for the age pension and limiting tax concessions on superannuation contributions…